Barons' War INCLUDING The Battles of LEWES AND EVESHAM. BY WILLIAM HENRY BLAAUW, ESQ., M.A. "Tis wonderful What may be wrought out of their discontent."- SHAKSPEARE. London: NICHOLS & SON, PARLIAMENT-STREET; JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, OLD COMPTON- STREET, SOHO; AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., STATIONERS' COURT. Lewes: PRINTED BY BAXTER & SON. PREFACE. The distant view of the Castle and Battle Field of Lewes having led the Author to examine, with additional interest, the causes and circumstances of the great event which has given them a place in history, he felt that the mere details of a sanguinary contest would be unsatisfactory, unless, in some degree, illustrated by the manners and temper of the times, as well as by the characters and motives of the chief actors. He has not therefore scrupled to digress widely with that object, and the intended narrative of a day has insensibly swelled into a sketch of many years; but on considering the importance of that period of British history, it did not appear that justice would otherwise be done to the subject. Surprise may well be felt by those who are not conversant with the rude materials from which History has to be constructed, at the confusion and contradictions of the various chronicles relating to these times: many of these have been consulted by the author in manuscript, and of several important papers |